Closing the Book

March 5, 2012 Critically acclaimed biographer Robert K. Massie, who grew up in Nashville, has logged a lot of library hours in the course of writing four bestselling biographies. And somewhere, deep in the stacks, he always falls in love. In a new essay for The New York Times, he explains:

I began with visits to libraries, reading and reacting to different accounts and perspectives. Then came travel to faraway places, discussions with editors, followed by more libraries. I did this for eight years. By the time I had reached the halfway point, I felt both momentum and reticence: momentum because author and publisher both want a book to be finished; reticence because most biographers don’t want the writing to end. You don’t want the subject to die; you don’t want to lose the friend you have made, the companion you are accustomed to, and perhaps you also don’t want to see the whole cast of supporting characters, and the historical and cultural environment in which they all lived, vanish with them.

American Cookie

By Anne Byrn
Rodale Books
336 pages
$24.99

“No matter how much you know about America’s favorite little sweets, you’ll learn so much more from Anne Byrn’s new book. Every recipe comes with a story as delicious as the small bite it describes. And best of all, every small bite begs to be baked.”